Harry Potter: The Shroud
by Nubitox
Summary: The wizarding world is in shambles, but our hero is still standing tall. Watch as Harry Potter takes up the mantle of The Shroud in the world of the Avengers as a mercenary. What does Shield do in lieu of a mercenary no one have heard of, and which seems to be bordering on being bad? Straight.
1. One ending Another beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or Marvel.

**One ending. Another beginning.**

In a dark rundown staircase in an old apartment building. Two figures could be seen slowly converging on their target. Taking step, after carefully placed step, they were closing in on the intended apartment floor.

Reaching the door, one of the figures pulled out a small canister of oil, and proceeded to lube the hinges. The other took up a position on the other side of the door, and waited with a hand suspended over the door handle waiting for the ready signal. Getting the affirmative nod, the handle was softly pushed down, and a small stream of light was let through the door crack illuminating a head of red, and just barely showing the soft curves of a female chin. A small mirror was held through the gap to gain sight beyond the door.

A keen green eye was looking in the mirror scanning the corridor, and seeing one man standing down the corridor, pulled back the mirror, she put it back in her kit. Standing up she leaned towards the man to whisper. Absentmindedly noting, and categorizing the slight smell of gun oil clinging to him as she does so. _"There are one man down the hall, presumably outside our mark's room. I will venture a guess, and say that there's probably one more at the other side of him, as people like this seldom have just one bodyguard."_ Leaning back to observe her companion's stony face at the news, she received a small nod as to acknowledge that he had heard her. _"Not really much of a talker is he."_ She thought to herself as she did not know him. They had only just teamed up.

They had accidentally met outside this building when they had chosen the same place to scope out the situation. It quickly got apparent they where tracking the same man, and they had agreed to strike up a tentative partnership. For now.

Natasha had been in this game for far too long to just trust this wannabe mercenary of course, but it would be nice to have someone she could use as decoy if the shit hit the fan. She guessed him to be around her physical age, but he had given her a codename whom she had never heard of, nor heard talk about. _"Shroud! Who the hell call themselves, The Shroud? It sounds more like a name for a bad guy. Yeah, he needs to be a baddy. I can see the headlines. The Shroud strikes again... Hide your daughters, or the Shroud will vanish their innocence." _Nodding her head softly to her inner monolog, the Shroud decide to butt in with a whisper in his gravely voice which immediately pulled her attention. _"Well, you're fast, and agile right? I take out the closest, and you keep to the left, and get close to the next guy." _She thought about it, coming to the conclusion that he probably had observed, and committed to memory her fast movement when taking down the other two guards who were posted at the rear entrance. Giving him a mental point in that regard, she listened as he continued in his frosty tone. _"Just keep out of my way, and this will solve itself splendidly." _Nodding her head, she saw him pull out a silenced gun, and cocking it.

Just as she was preparing herself for the maneuver, he tapped her shoulder, and breathed in her ear, sending chills down her spine. _"I will open the door, and as I do. You start your run. I will be right on your ass, and take down the first guy." _No more words needed, she felt the familiar rush of excitement, and the coiling of her stomach in anticipation of violence.

His hand descended on the door handle, and the world slowed down as his movement felt excruciatingly slow. Having compressed the handle all the way down she saw the tightening in the muscle of his hand, and with a mighty pull, the door was open. Surprisingly, the door swung open with just a swoosh of air that buffeted her hair, and no other sound.

She was out, and turning the corner like a rocket, and noticing that the guards had yet to realize what was about to happen.

Keeping close to the left wall, she soon enough heard the tell tale sounds of suppressed bullets being fired, three in total she counted.

At her new vantage point she could now see that her guess was a good one, as there was two guards in front of the door. Seeing the shots hit the closest guard with inhumane detail, she saw two holes opening in the side of his head, and the last one rupturing his neck. Pulling out her knife just as the blood from the shots sprayed all over the other man, she leaped, and hilted the knife in his neck just as his mouth was opening to give a cry of surprise. It was to late, all the sound escaping the slowly dieing man now would be a gurgle.

As his hands shot to his neck in a futile attempt to stem the bleeding, she yanked her knife from his neck, grabbed him, and put him down on the ground as silently as she could.

Whirling around, she had not registered the other man's dump bang from falling, but she was certain he would have crumbled to the ground after being shot like that, and by doing so made quite the ruckus.

Ready for the occupants of the room to come check the sounds, she once more reviewed the short fight, and if she might have missed the sound of the man falling, but chalked it up to her being distracted.

When nothing happened, and her slight tunnel vision receded. She saw Shroud walk relaxed up to the door, and put his hand on it. Closing his eyes, he seemed to portray a serenity she rarely had seen anyone able to procure even in a green zone. Yet alone right after a quickfire battle had been resolved.

Opening his eyes, he fixed her with his unnatural green eyes, and motioned with his hands that there was one person inside.

She gave him a confused look as to how he would know that, but he shook his hand at the confusion, and motion for her to focus on the objective, as he turned to the door.

She saw his whole body tensing up. His six foot frame preparing to deliver a massive expulsion of force in a form of a kick. Her fighter mode kicked in, and there was obvious that all pretenses of sneaking were about to be shed in favor of making a shocking, and intimidating breach of the room.

The kick came, his body following the motion through. Splinters from the door, and the sound of the door giving in painted a perfect picture of pure chaos, and she felt her legs go a little weak from the display of power. Straightening herself, she saw his body going through the opening, like the door had never been there.

When she got inside she saw the mark sitting in a plush chair, having enjoyed a glass of some kind of beverage to his work before they came to crash his party. Now the man was frozen in terror, his eyes glued to his assailant, and she understood why. Shroud seemed to fill the whole room with an oppressive aura of death. The feeling of the room so potent she could feel the warmth of her body leave her. It made it feel like she was being judged by the god of death himself.

Before she could react shroud had raised his gun, and said with a voice devoid of life. "Today you die Malfoy. May your soul never find rest." With that he had pulled the trigger. Two shots was put in the heart of the mark, and one directly in between his eyes.

Turning around, Shroud walked away from the still warm body.

Giving Natasha one last look he left her with a statement.

"It was a pleasure working with you Black Widow, your help was instrumental in gaining my revenge." With that he turned the corner, and the second it took before Natasha understood that her mission was a bust, as she was tasked with bringing the target in, not kill him. She ran to the door, and looked after him, but he was already gone, like he had just vanished in thin air.

"_Like a shroud. Maybe the name was not so stupid after all." _Busying herself with getting the hell out of the area, as that last breach surely would have alerted someone to the actions of the pair.

She picked up the papers that were spread out on the table, and made a quick search of the room before she decided that the papers would have to be enough. Then she escaped without notice at last, and the crime would be chalked up to being another murder done by a serial killer. Unsolved of course.

b

B

Natasha was not amused. She was sitting here face to face with a Shield grunt, giving description, after description of her last mission, and how she had brought an unknown into it. _"Its like they are trying to teach me it was a stupid move, by having me say it a thousand times."_

Giving a mighty sigh when the grunt ask her to again take it from the beginning. She was really starting to hate the fact that she had felt unsafe in the mercenary profession as she now needed to explain what she did, and why to a superior officer.

She had searched for a way out of the mercenary life without having to fake her own death, as she had over the years gained quite the impressive list of enemies.

Hawkeye, an old, trusted associate of her had recently "switched" sides, and had gained employment with a secret agency. He had as an earlier bad guy had no qualms with telling her about the job, or the perks it came with, and boldly stated that he most probably would be able to get her in too. That is, if she was looking.

She had jumped the good guy train, and was now sucking on the warm tit offered to her from the secret agency. Finally having gained that oh so precious feeling of safety that she had been without for so many years.

She knew that she was quickly becoming dependent on Shield's good will, and protection. She also knew that if she ever where to become useless to them, that she would soon loose that protection, and warmth.

So her she was, being the good subordinate. Reporting in on what had been a capture mission gone wrong, until it shifted focus to this new threat that was Shroud. Because everything that Shield does not know of already is perceived as a threat, and that meant they needed any information they could get their dirt little hands on. Either by legal action, or illegal subterfuge. The means did not really matter as long as the threat was uncovered.

It seemed that the fact that her mark was killed instead of brought in alive was of no greater concern than how it happened. They actually asked her if she had any ideas as to a believable cover story, and how the murder could be twisted to bother someone else. She had answered in a joking manner that it could be a mafia hit performed by a professional assassin. Her handler had gained a thoughtful look at that statement, but they did not discuss it any further.

They had finished their interview after another detailed description of Shroud, and they had left to complete other tasks.

B

b

Harry swirled a small tumbler filled with whiskey. He was scanning the darkly lit establishment for something of interest. It seemed to be a slow night though, and the fact that it was Wednesday did not help the matter any either. But thank god for small mercies, as the bar line was short, and would presumably keep that way the rest of the evening.

Having decided to retire to a bar for the night. He had found one not far from the apartment building his last mission had lead him. The mission, originally received from the Order of the Phoenix, had now become a private obsession. The mission had first been about observing, then capturing the target. But as time had dragged on, more, and more information had been unveiled, and with that his orders had morphed from strictly capture, to dead or alive, and lastly just dead.

Well the standing mission from the order, had stopped at dead or alive, but after he found out that this man was responsible for the deaths of his closest, and best friends. Harry had no other choice than avenge his friends, and put this abomination down once and for all. He certainly owed them that. Once too many times had his mercy, and the faulty government of the wizarding kind let this man walk free, and he had just seen to it that it ended.

"_Well" _Harry mused. _"The world is a better place without Draco fucking Malfoy anyway."_ Having had the same thought pop into his mind often throughout the last year.

He once more accepted his reasons for killing by Taking another gulp of his chosen beverage. He felt the sting of alcohol as it went down his throat, he though back to earlier periods of pain, and suffering, and he guess by his young age of only 25 that he was shaping up to gain quite the score in that field. He guessed he would be ranking up against some of the heavy hitters like Dumbeldore with his 115 years which he had reached at the end.

Shaking his head. He refused to let the sorrow, and guilt of Hermione's, and Ron's deaths overshadow his "good" deeds this last year.

It was soon after the death of Hermione, and Ron that he started taking a active role in taking out "known" Death Eaters. After he had defeated Voldemort back when he was 17, all the pureblood bigotry had simmered down, and justice had run its course for the most part.

Most people had been interrogated with veritaserum, and had been judged accordingly, but some of the older, and more powerful families had twisted out of the grasp of the law yet again, but they had been laying low for some time after the last battle, and therefor no one thought them a threat.

So the golden trio had finished their education, and started their life anew, with Hermione, and Ron getting married. Harry himself had gone back to Ginny, but their relationship had never really evolved past the friends with benefits state. Their relationship had also been on the back burner, as their careers took all their time, and before Harry could contemplate the future, Ginny was violently ripped from him by a insane man at the mental wing in St. Mungos.

Who would have known that a patient could suddenly awake from a coma, and in a frenzy made out of blind panic, rip open the throat of the closest person with their bare hands. It had been an messy ordeal, as there was three nurses, and a doctor who had died before some guests at the wing managed to stun, and subdue the man.

Shuddering a little at the thought of how he got the news. He yet again tried to push his thoughts away from it, but was forced to relive the memory.

He had been the unspeakable on duty that day, and got sent to investigate the happening. So you can imagine his surprise when he arrived at the scene, and recognized a very familiar shade of red hair, and brown eyes which he could never forget in a lifetime.

To cut a story short, he had in public put a cutter right through the stunned man's brain. Gotten suspended, then fired from the ministry.

People had been very understanding of the situation though, and because of who he was, he was let go with just a hefty fine, and the forced attendance at a shrink for a couple of weeks. It was to "process the loss of your lost one" they had said.

The fact that he actually was let go after having murdered a defenseless man in broad daylight, in public, with witnesses no less. Just made him angry at the ministry, and loose faith in the system.

Serving his time with the shrink, and after getting himself a job as a librarian in the muggle world, he soon again got satisfied with his life, and he though he had finally gotten his wish of a normal life.

But then came the seemingly "natural" deaths of Hermione, and Ron. The official story stated they had splinched themselves in such a way that their deaths was instant. Ron he would have understood if it were to happened. He had always been a scatter brain, but Hermione? Not a snowballs chance in hell. He figured that there had to be a story behind it. No witch had been born so detail oriented in the last century, and he promised himself he would get to the bottom of it.

So after some detective work it quickly became apparent that they had not died by their splinching, but by a simple death curse. Diving deeper into the investigation, he had found clues as to Death Eaters standing behind the deaths, and he had gone to the last remaining people of the order, and asked for help finding these individuals. They had not been particularly convinced, but had relented in the end.

If he would ask for it, he would get back up.

He moved on with sneaking into houses, and work places of "known" death eaters, and had proceeded to gain information that the group was rebuilding, and was quickly gaining the support of the remaining populace with expertly crafted speeches.

Harry had really been shocked by how many hidden death eaters where holding positions of power in their war ravaged society, and it seemed they had never stopped spreading their message. Just toned it down after the fall of Voldemort.

Confronting the order with this information he gained his first bit of support, and his first order of capture.

Getting his target, he had proceeded to interrogate the man whom after a while had let it slip in anger, and frustration that the murder of his friends had in fact been murder. Hearing this he had gone from having an interrogation to having an torture session. The man had after a while yielded the names of some of the higher ranked people.

So as it goes, Harry had kept up this routine of capturing, and torturing until he got most of the higher ups, and found the bastard on the top.

So when he first got the information that it was Draco Malfoy who sat at the top of their organization he saw red, and before he reported his intentions to the order he had promptly killed the man who gave the information, and the rest of his conspirators soon after.

The order thinking that he would follow their wish of going about it peacefully had tried to force him to swear an unbreakable vow of bringing in Draco without much harm. But Harry would hear nothing of it, and stated his intentions as they where, that Draco would die just as the rest of the death eater scum did.

Be it with, or without their help.

Harry had soon been betrayed by the order of the Phoenix as he had failed to yield to their demands.

They had contracted hitmen to take care of him, thinking him too uncontrollable.

So he showed them uncontrollable by laying waste to the whole organization, taking out key personnel, and shutting it all down before going after Draco.

Emptying his tumbler he looked down into the bottom of the glass, and reflected on his actions this last year. _"I know Hermione, and Ron would not have wanted me to go down this path, but now I'm at peace, and I'm ready to move on." _Putting down his glass, he payed the bartender. "_It had to be done. Someone needs to play the part of the bad man, so others can live in ignorance."_

Scoffing to himself at that statement, he thinks of what really remains of the wizarding world. _"As to the whole "Saving the people thing" I guess it was too little, too late." _In the end, all that remained was a society which could not support itself, and most of those left standing would have to merge with muggle society. _"And that is not the worst part either." _The last remaining people with an magical core big enough to use magic was quite old, and would probably die not that far into the future. _"The younger generation will have no one to teach them. Well.." _Harry shrug his shoulders. _"It's not like there is anyone to teach anyway." _Voldemort in his last act of defiance had tried to take out as many children as he could. He was actually quite successful too. Leaving the wizarding kind without a new generation, and this last uprising against muggles had forced Harry to take out quite a big part of the remaining magic users.

So without a way to locate magical children, and knowledge of magic disappearing with each new death made Harry a part of a dying breed.

b

b

Starting the morning after with a blaring clock, chiming the sound of morning. Harry awoke with a pounding head. Taking some time reflecting on his choice of day to stay up late and drink. He came to the conclusion that it was not a good idea, and as a testament to his statement his head gave another painful throb, before subsiding into a buzz who would become apparent if he moved his head too quick.

Shuffling his way out into the kitchen, he cast a glance at the calendar, and found it to indeed be a Thursday, and by default a work day.

Giving a great, big gasp, he tried to crush the sleep out of his eyes with his hand, before proceeding to make his breakfast. Two dry pieces of bread with some form of meat on top, and a glass of water would have to do.

Going about his regular morning ritual in a timely manner, he soon was out the door, and on his way to work at the local library.

Harry came to think about his chosen type of work. In his earlier years at Hogwarts, he could almost not stand studying, but when the very real threat of Voldemort finally had sunken into his dense skull, and the fact that it would not resolve itself became apparent. He had finally turned to the books in hope of meeting his faith in the right way, head on.

So Harry let his feet lead him the short distance from his apartment to his work place, and while doing so he let his mind wander.

It was incredible what you could do with magic, but at the same time very limited.

Harry had found out that muggle weaponry, was, and would always be more deadly than magic. Even one on one, if you did not react fast enough, a bullet would shred through your body faster than you could blink. But if you where proficient in using two spells at the same time you could keep up a shield charm with enough concentration, and throw curses while at it.

The fact were that a bullet would not drain a shield in the same way a stunner or cutter would, as instead of the kinetic force a bullet would produce, the spells would be of energy, and therefore needed to be "eaten" by the shield. Where a bullet would only "push" against the shield.

Though given a large enough bullet, like a tank shot, it would push your body back with the force given by the slug hitting your shield, and even if you might feel the impact of the bullet, it would not enter your shield, but your body might be pulverized by the sudden acceleration it would be forced to endure. Because even how great the shield charm is, it would still be anchored to your core, and you would be very dead, smeared all over the ground.

Giving himself a small grin at the though of how he found out that little fact.

It had happened in one of his fights with some of the death eaters, and he had realized that using your surroundings was a great way to both keep yourself alive, and not expend yourself in battle as it was much easier to lift a object, and making it fly at breakneck speeds. Than it was to expend energy from your core in the form of a cutter, and the bigger the object you made fly, the more energy your enemy needed to slow it down. Aka, back to the tank shot. Harry had made a chunk of a brick wall levitate, and banished it towards his opponent, and because of the speed which the object was moving at, the man had only managed to raise a shield, right before having his body ruptured by his core starting to shift inside his body.

The grin on Harry's face slowly dwindled into a frown. The sight of the man's spine suddenly exploding had been quite gruesome to witness, and worst of all. Harry could not interrogate the man to gain more information after it was done.

Kicking an empty soda can down the street, he scoffed. That day had been a complete waste, if there was not for the new piece of battle magic he had discovered.

B

b

Having arrived at his workplace on time as always. Harry had gotten himself a cup of Te, and was now reading the morning paper carefully leaning back into a cozy chair.

Lightly reading the headlines, he soon came to the one he looked for. "_Wealthy businessman found murdered._" Harry mused on the fact that death eaters usually had a second identity as a businessman or woman in the muggle world. _"I guess they had to get their money somewhere, and when it comes to gold it seems muggle gold is as good as magical." _Continuing to read the article, it seems the whole thing is made up to be some kind of mafia war. Elimination of the opposition they write. On a side note, they also write that many of the murders seem to be linked together, that there is one assassin doing them all.

Harry guessed he could see the link, as many higher ranking death eaters was leaders of big companies, so when he was eliminating them, he guessed he adopted this personal spin on it, making it easy to do the same thing every time. Two shots in the chest, one in the head. It was easy, and effective. Why change it up?

The fact is that he took this library job as a part of his cover, he is really making his money doing jobs as a mercenary, and no its not only the get this kitten down from that tree, or help this kid get his ball back from the roof kind of work either.

Harry had enough of being the poster boy after the war. Why follow the "right" path if there is more money in doing other people's dirty work

Harry had quickly found out that keeping anonymous was a special key to keeping alive in this line of work. So he found the use of oblivations perfect for this. He was absolutely rubbish at anything even remotely hinted at being called mind arts, but he could get it to work. So he kept his meetings with the clients to a minimum, and keeping the meetings inside a time frame of an hour.

Because if the meeting went on for more than an hour, he could do nothing to erase his presence from their mind, and he would be forced to take drastic measures as a precaution to keep his identity a secret. Like lobotomizing them, or outright kill them.

That being said. There was a surprising amount of people wanting their better half dead, and even though Harry was pretty new to this game, he had been on his fair share of hits already.

Taking a computer, Harry started his search for possible jobs on the internet. There where a lot of sites set up for things like this, and while there always was a possibility of you getting caught. You could minimize this by doing your research on the client, and the job. But you had to assume the client did not know what the fuck he was doing, and so by doing smart things you could minimize your own exposure. But if you learn some tricks of the trade you quickly get used to using a multitude of proxxys, and setting up several dummy networks who would keep the peacekeepers away from your location for some minutes, enabling you to grab your stash, and escape.

But if your client was more than an ignorant fool, he would most likely disappear from the sites in a short amount of time, (indicating he got caught) or he would stick around showing he understood the rules of the game, and giving you enough information to get in contact.

Whoever said that being a hitman was easy, obviously did not understand the new era that was starting.

Harry scanned through the entries, recognizing a couple who had been there for some time already, and by the look of it seemed to be big jobs.

Harry glanced down on his notepad, and looked through the information he had gathered on the jobs from earlier, and figured he could manage them, but clients like this was usually on the lookout of more famous assassins, with a better known renown.

Harry really did not understand this, as it must be better to have a man working for you who no one have ever heard talk about, as opposed to one who was widely know around the world.

Harry's opinion was that those types often made too many mistakes to really be trusted with anything, and if luck was not on their side, they would either be dead, or locked up in a maximum security prison somewhere in a deserted area.

Searching for some other jobs that was more to his liking, he found some of the ones he had scouted earlier. They where not as well paying as the big deals, but they usually gave you the chance to meet other people, like Black Widow, and Logan the wolverine.

Thinking back on his meeting with Logan he had to laugh. The man is as stubborn as they come, and that had gotten them both into difficulties. Well Harry had problems, Logan just smacked down anyone coming near him, like he was made of steel.

B

b

Harry had been in a bar which was closing for the evening. When suddenly the door had blown open, showing a figure walking calmly in with a cigar in his mouth. While the bartender said that the bar was closed for the evening, Logan had just ignored him, and ordered a beer. That was the point where the regulars started to converge on him, asking what his problem was, and generally trying to start a fight.

Harry seeing the situation escalating tried to defuse it by giving the strange man one of his beers, and hoping it would all simmer down. Well to keep it short, lady luck had abandon him that night, and one of the regulars had thrown a punch at Harry's face in retaliation to his meddling.

Harry had smoothly sidestepped the punch, and used the man's own momentum to give his punch the force required to make the man drop like a sack.

For a moment the whole bar had frozen, then it had exploded into action, Logan had knocked down two of the five who surrounded him in half a second while Harry took down one more. Logan then proceeded to beat down two more while Harry finally dealt with the last man standing at the sidelines, effectively ending the little battle in no more than a few seconds.

Before Harry found out they had taken out the regulars. Logan had went straight for the bar, and demanded his beer. Harry had gotten the distinct feeling that this was not a man who lost sight of his priorities.

Harry had joined him at the bar, and they had forced the barkeep to extend the serving for a couple of hours that night.

B

b

Harry had kept some semblance of friendship with Logan since then, but Logan was a private man, and would give some kind of sound from himself if he so wanted, and he never gave Harry a number to call, so they rarely talked.

Harry focused back on his job searching, and decided to find this one man looking for someone who could steal a certain component from a corporation. The job seemed to allude to quite the payday, but he guess he would have to meet the client before finding out.


	2. Balls Deep

**An: Ok I added a part to Harry's fight with Clint, because I guess it was kind of unclear as to why Harry was attacked, and I hope that it's easier to see the connection now. I apologize for my lazy ass as I skipped that part as I hoped nobody would notice.**

**Another thing is that I hope to keep this pretty much a story following Harry, and not everyone else. So parts where we will be following other characters is to explain Harry's involvement, and eventual ripples he's making in this time line.**

**I also need to say that I'm not really going after any cannon or anything along those lines, because frankly I don't know them, and I'm too lazy to research. So I make up everything I write as I go, and I will pretend to have Harry's adventures happen as a side adventure to everything that happens in the movies. But that is not to say that I'm not going to let Harry in on some fun. But I want Harry to be perceived as a bad guy, and slowly creeping in on the guys as the story moves on, and that means that he is not going to suddenly be invited to their ship, and on all their missions.**

**I know that I would have found it fun the next day, after major events, to be able to read the "lies" of the media, and I hope to be able to give it the same feel as the newspapers in the Hitman games.**

**So please feel free to give me a heads up if you feel that I need to clear up something, or why some characters do what they do.**

**As a last note. You Will have the ability to influence on this story, and if I get some good ideas that fits the story, or certain scenarios that you would like to see. They might very well end up in the story.**

**Previously**

_Harry had kept some semblance of friendship with Logan since then, but Logan was a private man, and would give some kind of sound from himself if he so wanted, and he never gave Harry a number to call, so they rarely talked._

_Harry focused back on his job searching, and decided to find this one man looking for someone who could steal a certain component from a corporation. The job seemed to allude to quite the payday, but he guess he would have to meet the client before finding out._

b

b

**Balls deep**

Harry was scowling down at the facility he was supposed to break into.

He had met up with his client to discuss the mission parameters, and eventual what pay to expect when he delivered the item.

While the man had seemed quite timid, and unsure of the situation he had seemed confident in what questions to expect. So the reward was quickly agreed on, and the necessary information was given without too much problems. So Harry got the feeling that the man was sent by someone else as a liaison, and while Harry did not necessary like this. He knew that by oblevating his presence from this man he would be able to keep anonymous.

So sitting through the short briefing. Harry got all kinds of information about guard routines, security measures, and work shifts. He could not quite shake off the feeling of wrongness the job was giving, but the job seemed to be easy, and well prepared. So the worst part was that there seemed to be someone on the top pulling at the strings, but that should not be a problem to Harry as soon as he changed the memories of himself.

Harry did not like playing the puppet. Not one bit. But his curiosity was peaked. This job was a retrieving mission. All he had to do, was get in, get a box. Then get out of the facility without getting caught, and it was not even a big box he was going to steal.

Playing by his Griffindor traits, he decided to accept the job. But he was going to make himself a plan B that he would not divulge to anyone. Just to be on the safe side.

So here he was, sitting in the rain, observing the facility, coming to the conclusion that all seemed normal. _"Well, what where you thinking Potter? That suddenly a great, big tank would be rolling down the road, and smash a big hole in the wall? Tch... Not likely!"_

Hearing a thump in the distance, he wrote it off as thunder before resuming his observation.

Thinking carefully to himself, Harry thought of other possible entriesto the facility. _"My plan of going through the ventilation on the side of the building, still seems to be the best course of action. But there is not much shadows over there so I need to be quick, and time this perfectly."_

Giving his lips a lick, he ponders this problem. _"I would have used my invisibility cloak, but against modern technology it won't do much. That which are dead, can see the dead." _He had found out that even though the cloak was a perfect camouflage against the human senses, it would not fool a camera, or sensors, and thus it often would be more of a hindrance than a asset on this kind of job.

Before he could contemplate anymore on entry points, a big shadow was plowing its way down the road. Fast.

The big thing was speeding down the road like no tomorrow, and was throwing cars to both sides. Leaving them wrecked, and burning in its wake. Harry's eyes widened to an impossible size at his surprise. "What the hell is that?" Escaped him before he reminded himself that no one else was close enough to hear him.

As the thing come closer, Harry saw that it's a big green man in a rage aiming dead straight for the facility. Seemingly hell bent on punching right through it.

The guards, looking to be holding military grade weaponry had also seen the big man coming towards them. They were taking up covering positions, and open fire. Either the men were bad shots. That seems very unlikely with the size of their target, or their hits simply does nothing to this raging... Hulk. So they do the only sensibly thing when you are confronted with a superior force, they ran.

Scattering like scared animals, the guards escapes the initial attack of the green monster as it jumps their position.

Having smashed the offending barricade. It soon turned to the fleeing guardsmen, and before long was ripping them apart with extreme prejudice. Done mauling the guards it turned, and plowed through the building like it was paper. It then continued on towards the city in the distance, quickly disappearing from sight.

Harry having observed the mindless destruction of the guards, and building. Thought about how easy his job had suddenly become. Focusing back on the job he had donned his stone mask once more, and as he saw the monster leave the area, he had taken the opportunity to cast a tracking spell on it before he went into the building. Thinking the creature interesting.

Looking at the destruction up close as he walked through the facility, he felt a shiver run down his spine at the incredible powers the green being had unleashed on the building. The building was now little more than a shell, leaving it with a creepy atmosphere as lights were flickering, and sparking. It seemed that when the green man went through, he had pulled with him some electrical cables too, leaving parts of the facility in complete darkness.

Deciding not to stay in this graveyard any longer. Harry found his quarry, and left. Leaving behind untold amounts of destruction, and a story which would be twisted to better fit a cover story.

b

b

Having left the package at his place, he had went after the green man hoping to find answers to what was going on.

He had been forced to wait for some time before starting his hunt, as his tracking beacon told him that his target was moving too fast, and for a slight moment Harry was afraid his spell would fail before he could track the man down.

Arriving at a forest someplace called Monongahela, he had started his trek through the forest.

The entry point of the green man he had found quickly as it was just a big path of destruction. So he followed that path hoping that at the end of that trail he would find his target. But luck was not on his side, the path soon thinned out, and he was forced to actually start tracking by the old methods.

He got slightly baffled at how such a big beast could hide its tracks so well, and proceeded to look for footprints, broken branches and other disturbances in the nature around him. He was soon cursing the tracking spells, and their inaccurate nature.

Some would venture a guess that a point me spell would be enough, but you never knew what you were tracking before you found it, and the description "green man" could probably lead him, just fine mind you, to a sick man as the big figure he was trying to find. So that was not really any help either, and what did he know. Maybe there were a lot of big ass green men around.

Hearing the sound of choppers. Harry stopped his hating, and tried to localize where it came from.

Hearing the sound closing in, he saw a couple of sleek black choppers fly right over his head in roughly the same line he was tracking. Coming to the conclusion that they probably where the government trying to contain the situation. Harry sped up his hiking, and hustled to get to the area before it was all cleaned up. The tracking beacon seemed to have settle down in this area, and if the movement of the choppers was any indication, he was almost there.

B

b

It had taken half an hour more to get to the place the choppers was slowly circling, and in this time period he had seen whole trees fly through the air almost hitting the choppers more than once.

Arriving at the clearing Harry guessed contained the green beast. He had heard a whole lot of different sounds ranging from wood breaking, drizzling of dirt, and roars of anger. So cautiously he closed in on the edge of the clearing just as a pair of big green hands gripped the tree directly in front of him, and proceeded to rip it out of the earth without a second pause.

Harry had barely had the time to throw himself behind some bushes off to the side to get cover from the beasts eyes. But the green thing had just spun around with the tree and all in hand before in the same motion launched the big tree at one of the choppers who had made the mistake of venturing too close. Missing it by a thin margin.

Harry now saw what they had been doing circling the man. They had fired something which looked like tranq darts, and now that he could see the ground in the clearing. He saw something like broken fishnets littering the ground. This made Harry come to the conclusion that they were trying to capture, and bring the beast in.

The beast once more got provoked by one of the choppers. It ripped out another tree, before yet again lunching it on the choppers. This time though it hit one of them, and it simply shredded the rotor blades right off its engine.

Seeing the chopper hang for a second in the air gave Harry just enough time to wince as it thundered into the ground.

The other chopper wasted no time, and immediately opened up another hell with its dual mounted 50. cal Gatling guns. The sound of the two guns filled the mountains with an crippling sound, and making the beast shy away a little by both the sound, and bullets hitting it.

While the chopper kept it occupied the other chopper crew got out of the wreck, and started hightailing out of the clearing. Harry did not really care too much about the people, but he could see through the front window that one sorry soul was left behind looking like he was struggling to get out of the chopper.

The beast having thrown another tree at the offending gunship rushed over to the down chopper, and gripped it tightly before lunching that one at the other chopper too.

Harry feeling kind of sorry for the person stuck inside soon had to move as it was thrown in his direction, and if he did not want to die today he had to get away from it.

Before he had the opportunity to really think things through. He had rushed out into the clearing to avoid the chopper, and as the saying goes. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.

The wrecked chopper thundered to the ground behind him. His ears only really hearing the heavy panting, and growls from the man in front of him. All Harry could think was. _"Fuck. What a great way to die, being mashed to pudding by this overgrown bodybuilder." _Thinking fast Harry cast a wandless tripping spell, and started moving back towards the wreck.

The other chopper having repositioned itself again opened fire, and the combination of Harry's spell, and the force of the chopper's bullets hitting the beast, it went tumbling behind a small hill.

Harry right before the chopper opened fire, heard a female scream from the wreck.

Cursing his saving people thing, he entered the ship, seeing one of the pilots stuck in their seat trapped by a metal tube having penetrated her thigh. Thus nailing her to her seat, and the roof of the chopper. It had probably saved her from a violent death when the wreck hit the ground after the throw.

Muttering under his breath as he palmed his wand. "You should be dead. I guess you got lucky you were nailed to your seat." Saying this as he gave the rest of the chopper a once over, observing sharp edges jutting out everywhere. He was sure they would be able to pierce a body, if one were to come flying.

Focusing back at the task at hand, he would need his wand, and concentration to pull this off without cutting the girls leg off. He could hear the roars of the beast, and the chopper's fight, and he knew it was only a matter of time before either the chopper got "shot"down, or it ran out of bullets. Leaving it unable to distract the beast.

Squaring his shoulders, he put his mind to the task. He raised his voice to a level which he knew the woman would be able to hear him. Even through the ear protection offered to her by the thick pilot helmet. "This is what we are going to do. I need your help to hoist your body, and keeping it lifted while I cut loose your leg." While he was telling her this he was snaking his hands under her, making her squirm, and whimper.

As he was readying his grip, his mind suddenly got keenly aware of where his hands was resting. Feeling the warmth from both her blood, which was slowly pooling in her seat, and from her sex he got oddly aroused. Shaking his head at the inappropriate thoughts, he focused on his task. "This will hurt, but I know you can do it. So on my mark." Bracing himself, he could also feel the woman preparing herself. "Go!" Hoisting her up just a little bit she screamed, but caught herself in it, and bit her lip as to not blow out Harry's eardrums. He quickly shot a cutter at the metal, and was rewarded with a little movement in the pipe. Knowing he had struck true, and severed the metal without hitting the woman. He told her the next step. "Ok, I just cut the pipe under you. Let's get you down without any further incidents."

Feeling the woman shake from the pain the movement had inflicted on her, he carefully helped her down, and quickly extracted himself from her lukewarm pit. Her head was now lolling around, and he was sure she was just running on fumes, and probably would not pick up on anything of what he either said, or did. He quickly cut the pipe right over her thigh, not bothering to hide his wand, and extracted her from her seat. He had to carry her out of the chopper, and he guessed that the force required to lift her body, and keeping herself there, had quickly exhausted the rest of her strength.

Now free from the wreck he became aware of another fact. There was no sound of fighting. Just the distinct sound of helicopter rotors. No guns, no enraged roars. _"Shit!"_ Was all Harry managed to think before the chopper wreck was wrenched from its resting place, and thrown far away into the surrounding forest.

Shifting his quarry onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry, he got awarded with a whimper, and guessed it to be a good sign. That which feels pain, is still alive.

He tried another tripping spell, and turned to the forest in a run. Feeling the ground shake from the beast falling, Harry smiled a little to himself, thinking he had bought himself another second by the act. _"Well that got to have upset him."_

Feeling the ground starting to shake repeatedly, and hearing the great beast roar. Harry chanced a quick look back. His eyes widened in shock. _"What the hell! Is he crawling?" _The beast. Instead of trying to get back up, or simply getting distracted by its feet not working properly. Had decided to drag itself after them by the sheer force of its arms, and was gaining on them quickly.

Racking his brain for something else to use on the beast, Harry came up with a plan. Thinking the foliage would be dense enough here, as to not give away the distinct flash of light this particular piece of magic would procure to the chopper.

Getting a hold of his wand again, he swished, and flicked it towards the forest. Making a flash of power engulf the nearest trees. The forest suddenly got very alive. Feeling his brow furrow in concentration, he made the trees he passed seem to be slightly closer to each other, and had their branches start entwining with each other down by the base of their trunks.

Hearing the breaking of branches, and roaring of the beast getting further away, he hoped he had finally escaped. But he kept his murderous speed up for another five minutes, and got to the conclusion that they were safer now. The sounds of the beast having subsided, then disappeared after a while.

Finding a rocky outcrop he let the woman down on the ground behind it giving her a slight cover. He then tried his best to gather his breath.

Looking around himself he transfigured a couple of birds out of forest material he found laying around, and then bound them to his will with another spell.

The mind control spell Harry used was not strictly a "light" spell, but it was not nearly as dominating as the imperius. It merely gave the caster some semblance of control to exert its will over the victim, mostly in the type of suggestions. The true bonus of the spell would have to be that you got the same information the target acquired, through the formed bond.

Having bound the birds to his will. He used a second to get used to the feeling of getting information from more than one source, and then sent them out to work as scouts.

Turning back to his patient, he saw she had fallen unconscious. If it was from the pain, or the exhaustion he did not know. But he knew that she needed to get to a hospital soon, or she would loose her leg, or possibly her life, and that was simply not an option.

Deciding to take a closer look at the wound, he needed to cut off the leg of her suit. He Took great care to not release the spell, but just harness the cutting power from the spell at the tip of his wand. Doing this he soon had unveiled one smooth leg from its confines. Prodding the wound carefully as to not bring more pain to the woman in his care, he thought he could make out the fact that it had punched cleanly through her leg missing the bone, and by the small amount of blood seeping out of the wound probably the artery too.

Cursing his lack of training in medical treatment, Harry resign himself to having to bring the woman out of the forest in a muggle fashion. Because if there was one thing he knew, it was that apparating with an unconscious person was a recipe for disaster. Making it more likely to kill both yourself, and the one you brought along.

Using a while to transfigure a stretcher to his patient, he levitated her onto it, and used some more time to transfigure blankets. Another thing he had learned was to keeping the wounded warm, as blood loss usually left them with a reduced capability to keep themselves warm.

Also getting tired of not knowing what his partner looked like he vanished her helmet.

Sucking in a breath of air at the familiar red hair, and pale face, he knew that something was afoot.

This was Black Widow, his fellow mercenary, or that is what he had though at least.

Deadly efficient, beautiful, alone. That is what he remembers he was told. She was supposed to be unaffiliated with any organization, or that is what all the rumors were saying about her.

But here she is working for someone, and that someone obviously having a lot of money at their disposal. Also judging by the maneuvers of the choppers, and gear the other crew sported, they where pretty organized too, and trained to fight as a unit. This was not just some mercenary band having a get together. But a well oiled organization trying to capture a raging creature, and by trying to capture a beast like that meant they probably had the facilities to restrain it too.

This smelled like a government funded program, but why the other crews had left her to her faith he did not know. Where did the "We leave no man behind" policy go? One of the things Americans was so proud of marketing.

B

b

While Harry was preoccupied by his train of thoughts, Black Widow had regained her consciousness, albeit barely. She fluttered her eyes against the light, and moved her arm to shield her eyes. Groaning at the feeling of pain her body was exuding, she weakly started to observe her surroundings. Quickly recognizing the face of Harry. "Shroud! What are you doing here?"

Harry having seen her move her arm, carefully molded his face into a mask of indifference. "That. Is something you should not concern yourself with." Adding in a murmur before he raised his wand at her. "Nor shall you remember it." Intending to stun her, and wipe her memory. He cast a stunner at her. Natasha's eyes went wide at the display of hostility from her rescuer/captor. She did not really understand what she should refer to him as. But having the red light hit her, she could feel herself getting sluggish, then sleepy. Fighting against the feeling she kept awake, and saw that Shrouds face was showing interest. Just like he expected the red light to do something else, before he sharply looked up, and turned around dodging something which came flying at great speeds.

Then everything faded to dark.

B

b

Clint was placed on the support team in this operation.

So as to not interfere with the raging beast, or get involved by random happenings. His team was placed a safe distance from the action.

So when they got the message that a chopper had crashed. They had exploded into action grabbing their gear, and had shot off into the forest to eventually distract, or misdirect the beast.

The chopper crews were briefed on where their support was supposed to be located before the start of the operation. So when Clint, and his teammates had located the downed crew they had done a quick count of people, and Clint to his immense horror had found out that Natasha had been left in the chopper in the confusion of the crash.

So he had followed the only logical option left in his mind, and approached the crash sight only to see Natasha being carried away by a dark haired stranger with the green monstrosity in hot pursuit.

So stealthy he had shadowed the offending creature, and its quarry until the forest suddenly seemed to get a lot denser.

While the forest managed to hamper the big beast's progress after the duo, it did nothing to stop Clint. So he crept on. Keeping hidden, and watching for any threatening moves by the stranger. _"It's too convenient that a stranger suddenly appears out of thin air to save her. It must be someone from her past." _Keeping this thought in mind, Hawkeye keeps careful watch as the stranger finds a natural outcrop to hide.

Temporary loosing sight of the duo. Clint is forced to relocate to another place in which he would be able to see what's going on.

Rushing to another spot, he sees the man have placed Natasha on a stretcher. _"Where did he get that stretcher? Was he prepared in advanced?" _Drawing a conclusion to what he was seeing he, stretched after an arrow. _"If he had a stretcher ready he needs to have entertained the though of using force to convince Natasha to come with him." _His hand close around an arrow. He pulls it forth, and ready his bow.

Seeing with his keen eyes that Natasha has awakened, and is moving around, albeit weakly, his hearth skips a beat. Now reassured that she is not dead, he yet again focuses on the pair. Seeing Natasha surprised by the appearance of the man makes Clint draw the fine thread of his bow back, readying a shot.

Seeing the hurt look on Natasha's face. A Thought shoot through Clint's head._"Like she was just betrayed." _He draws the last inch of what his bow could handle.

He is now ready to shoot, but he hesitates. Somehow he can't shake the feeling that there is a piece of the puzzle that he misses.

Seeing a red light engulf Natasha, he can see her jerk slightly in surprise before she appears weaker.

While he released his arrow, thoughts fly through his mind. _"Why did I hesitate? I should have taken the shot, while I still had the chance." _Feeling guilty at the thought of his inability of protecting Natasha, the feelings soon contorts into something more sinister. Pure unbridled hatred course its way through his veins. "_That man hurt her, and now I'm going to hurt him" _Even before his arrow had made its way to his target he prepared another.

Years of battle experience giving him the edge to be ready for everything. So when the stranger suddenly turned, and dodged his arrow he was not surprised. He just released the next arrow.

But what surprised him was that after he let loose the second arrow the man seemed to throw something over himself, and simply disappeared.

b

b

Harry having tried to stun Black Widow was surprised that she showed a resistance against the spell, but she was ultimately loosing the battle of staying awake. Getting a mental shout from one of his birds getting startled by something. He turned just in time to dodge a projectile resembling an arrow, which was obviously aimed at him.

Looking back along the trajectory he could see a short haired man notching another arrow before letting it loose.

Harry growled at the unprovoked attack, and dodged the second arrow which came at him, before picking it up a notch. Throwing his invisibility cloak on. He disappeared from sight, and moved towards his attacker.

Now closer he could see the man's eyes moving around looking for clues as to where he was.

About to cast a stunner at his opponent, Harry suddenly had to throw his body into a roll to dodge another arrow.

The man having picked up on where he stood by just his footprints had notched another arrow, and loosened it at where he heard Harry landed his roll, and where he could now see there was a indent in the soft forest floor.

Not being lucky enough to escape the arrow at this range. Harry was hit in the left arm, and he let loose a soft grunt at the hit. Gnashing his teeth together at the pain, and seeing that the man yet again had managed to notch an arrow. Harry decided to use his mangled left arm to protect himself, and to creating an opening to retaliate.

The next arrow was let loose, and Harry got his left arm up, and blocked the shot by getting hit yet again in the arm. Forcing down the pain, he focused on throwing a blasting curse while the other man was reloading.

Not really able to miss at the range he currently was at. Harry threw the curse, and with a sick fascination he observed the mans eye widen when first his bow was shattered, and then at the sudden force hitting him in the chest flinging him back until he hit the trunk of a tree.

Watching the man for any movement he decided he was not getting up, but on the safe side sent a stunner at him making sure he was not faking it.

Turning back to where he left Black Widow, he saw what could only be a crew of soldiers. They had formed a tight perimeter around her, and he could see another soldier checking up on her talking to something on his shoulder.

Taking another look around he decided that this was not his battle to fight, as it seemed they where there to retrieve her, not injure her.

Slinking away into the forest. Harry got a pleasant surprised that his invisibility cloak even hid the arrows jutting from his arm. He was sure if it had not, he would have been shot by one of the soldiers helping Black Widow. Because floating arrows moving around in the forest, would make for a great target.

B

b

Getting back to his flat, he wasted no time in getting himself a healing potion. Feeling the cool relief of the potion taking hold, and seeking out his problems. He sat down in a fluffy chair, and kicked back to relax.

The potion would take hours to work its magic on him, but it at least relived his pain until the task was done.

Having vanished the arrows from his arm in the forest, he had transfigured some bandages from the surrounding foliage, and bound his wound. He had been just as lucky as Black Widow. The arrows seemed to have missed both bone, and nerves. Making the healing pretty easy for the potion, but it would still take many hours to heal. But Harry would take hours any day, as opposed to days.

Thinking about how great healing potions was, and that even if the wizarding kind was dieing out that it did not mean all things magical was disappearing. He would still be able to get most of the potion ingredients he needed, as long as he knew where to find them.

With that thought in mind, Harry fell asleep in his chair. Sleeping away all his problems.


End file.
